L O S T WITH AS I LAY DYING’S NICK HIPA: NEMESIS DUDE TRIES TO STRAIGHT-UP KILL FOOLS, SUN AND JIN GET A TEARFUL FAREWELL, AND, OH YEAH, WHY DOES JACK NEED DESMOND?
Hoooooly Shizer! “The Candidate” last night was sick! This is my personal opinion, of course, but the culmination of action and character revelation/decimation should have been more than enough to get all of you juiced up as well!
In the Original Timeline, all suspicion of Nemesis Dude’s intentions towards the remaining candidates can now be tossed aside. That electromagnetic-flurry-of-scheminess is straight up trying to kill fools. He is NOT trying to get them off the Island because (just as Jack suspected during “The Last Recruit”) he is more concerned with what would happen if they DIDN’T. Most of us accepted this already, but like the Whispers, Tawaret, and the Black Rock, we now have absolute confirmation that his objective is to eradicate all Candidates who could serve to become his proverbial cork. Regardless of him being depicted as “the bad guy,” I thought it was genius how his manipulating of the Candidates in a submerged submarine with C4 almost unfolded flawlessly. Sayid’s heroism, although uncharacteristic of his recently infected self, ended the story line of my personal favorite and debatably most metal character of the show for the sake of who he feels is the “chosen” one: Jack.
“He wants him dead, which means you’ll need him… because it’s going to be you.” “He” being False Locke, “Him” being Desmond, and “You” being Jack, Sayid spoke with authority about the soon-to-be-realized roles. Jack’s new found affinity and subservience to the Island since his experience at the Lighthouse has made him the most obvious answer to the question, “Who will the Candidate be?” Most importantly though, we saw Jack explaining to Sawyer that the entire ploy of the watch and C4 was to get one of them to set it off, which would be the ONLY way they could die. Jack gets it: he understands that although Nemesis has the capacity to kill him, he is, for some reason, forbidden and unable to do it directly. Jacob is the only other person (that I can think of) who was aware of his invulnerability to Nemesis’s smoked out violence. Now that Jack is certainly cognizant of this part of the rules, I am really looking forward to seeing how his interaction with False Locke develops in the remaining three episodes!
Here’s a big question: why does Jack need Desmond? I can’t see him simply becoming the Richard Alpert to Jack’s Jacob, in that a mere representative role would in no way capitalize on all the “electromagnetic-resistant” hype they’ve been building up around him for so long. An episode theory I perused recently suggests that Desmond’s above-human capacity for taking an electromagnetic blasting will make him THE catalyst to reconciling the timelines. I back this, assuming that what started the alternate timelines was the non-detonation of Jughead. A theory I’ve read and enjoyed persuasively presents the idea that the detonation of Jughead neutralizes the EM energy, which leads to the building of the Swan to control it, which eventually becomes manned by Desmond who eventually blows it and causes the Oceanic 815 crash which recycles the story as we know it over and over. The situation as we are seeing it now is the story-line of Nemesis taking his loopholing the farthest he has ever taken it. In the process of his angling and conniving a version of the story where Jughead was NOT detonated occurs and Radzinsky’s hole is not neutralized. The result is the Island slowly being sucked underwater, a majority of the Dharma leaving the Island together, the Swan station never being built, and the Losties’ plane never crashing. The way their lives unfold after this is the alternate timeline as we are now seeing it. This theory has some gaping holes in it (which I look forward to some of you addressing so maybe we can get closer to something more accurate) but if it is correct in assuming that an unchecked release of electromagnetic energy was the catalyst for separating the two then maybe another unchecked release of EM can rectify and reconcile them. In that case, my eyes are on Desmond.
To beat the Desmond horse a little more, his releasing of EM that causes the reconciliation of the timelines will also serve the purpose of re-prisoning Nemesis as well:
As it has been made abundantly clear by the producers by the middle of season six, that the Man in Black is a prisoner of the island, yet, except for the natural barrier (water) this “prison” has no buildings for imprisonment like for example previously Alcatraz in the bay of San Francico. Alcatraz had a double system for protetion: The cell blocks inside the prison building AND the icy cold water surrounding Alcatraz Island.
It is fair to assume that the island’s electromagnetic properties (and pushing the button every 108 minutes in the Hatch) have provided the means to keep the Man in Black “chained” (think of the Alcatraz cell block as an analogy / allegory). The Man in Black had been manipulating events to the outcome that the electromagnetic energy had been released in the Discharge caused by Desmond and further depleted by the turning of the Frozen Wheel. Now, the Man in Black has actually gotten out of his “cell” and merely has to overcome the remaining natural barrier (water) to leave the island.
It seems necessary to relocate the Man in Black into his “cell” by restoring the island’s electromagnetic energy (this is why Zoe interrogates Jin about his survey of the electromagnetic pockets). How this could be accomplished currently remains unclear but probably requires someone immune to electromagnetic energy (= Desmond). To this end Widmore has brought Desmond to Hydra Island, tested his resistance to electromagnetic energy and allowed Desmond to be captured by “Team MiB” that takes him to the main island, where he is going to execute a yet unknown task (should Desmond fail, Widmore can still blow up the plane as a last resort…).
I agree with the aforementioned excerpt, with the exception that Nemesis’ only remaining barrier is not just water, but also a “Security Guard” in whomever becomes Jacob’s full-on replacement (Jack).
Regarding the Alt Timeline, Jack is starting to make eerie connections with other Oceanic 815er’s, the importance of which only a few peple have been able to recognize up until now – those people being Charlie and Desmond. Knowing that Desmond has a list that he has been diligent in addressing, and also knowing that the two are important to each other in the OT, my guess is that their post revelatory encounters will yield the most gigantic wad of awesomeness we can handle.
Finally, Sun and Jin are officially goners. They went a little overboard on trying to make this a real tear jerker, and it wasn’t until Hurley started losing it that I became a little empathetic. Sad as it was, I’m actually more concerned for the well being of Frank Lupidus… let’s all keep our fingers crossed that he magically made it out of that one alright and didn’t get killed off without serving any sort of purpose at all!
I’m looking forward to hearing your thoughts on “The Candidate” and what you suspect will happen next! Until then, stay stoked!
-NH
As I Lay Dying’s new album, The Powerless Rise, will be out this Tuesday, May 11 on Metal Blade! Why not find out if Nick is candidate on AILD’s MySpace page?
